Marika Kuzma, director of the chamber choir Ensemble Cherubim, recalls that when she was a graduate student in the 1980s, her Aunt Slava gave her an anthology of Ukrainian carols, saying, “Maybe this will come in handy someday.”
It has. Kuzma, professor emerita of music at University of California, Berkeley, not only explored the subject in her scholarly 2024 tome “Carols of Birds, Bells, and Sacred Hymns from Ukraine,” she’s responsible for “Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine: A Holiday Celebration,” a Cal Performances presentation in Zellerbach Hall on Dec. 13. The program features Ensemble Cherubim, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade, actor L. Peter Callender narrating, and the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir performing a sampling of Ukrainian carols from ancient times to the present.
Kuzma says the concert’s title differs from the book’s because it won’t focus on hymns but will focus on Ukraine’s veneration for peace.
“We in America are associating Ukraine with war right now, and there are many carols and lots of meditations from Ukraine about peace in the holiday season,” she says. “These carols have sustained Ukrainians through their winters of discontent.”
According to UNESCO, Ukraine far and away leads all other nations for its number of country and folk songs: 15,500, with Italy the next closest at 6,000. The figures astonished Kuzma as much as her perusal of the anthology her aunt gave her.
Even though she grew up knowing the importance of song, Kuzma says, “My jaw dropped when I saw that statistic.” She adds, “Everyone says how fertile Ukraine is in grain, but it’s also incredibly fertile in songs, and Ukrainians value those songs to preserve them and write them down.”
Many of Ensemble Cherubim’s 26 members are alumni of the UC Berkeley Chamber Chorus, which Kuzma directed for several years. Its singers all have experience in Ukrainian music; some have gone on to professional careers, including opera tenor Brian Thorsett.
This weekend’s concert begins with Ensemble Cherubim singing the oldest known Ukrainian song, a carol about the miracle of creation. The theme ties into Christianity’s birth of the Messiah and story of the nativity, which also are explored in the program’s first half.
“The star of Bethlehem is related to the star that Ukrainians used to carry around to show the beginning, the winter solstice and the return of the sun,” Kuzma explains, “so there’s a lot of ancient intersectionality of the pre-Christian and Christian, but also the wonder of Mary because Ukrainians worship Mary a lot.”
“Svitla Mama Maria” (“Luminous Mother Mary”) by Iryna Aleksiychuk, who has been a refugee in Spain since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, is being sung by the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir under the baton of PEBCC Director Eric Tuan.
The work, which has words by a children’s book author in Ukraine and is about how the Virgin Mary is a protector of children, has a poignant background. It was first performed by a choir in Kyiv that came under a Russian missile attack during a rehearsal.
Kuzma, who learned about the piece after meeting Aleksiychuk at the American Choral Directors Association conference, shared it with Tuan, who videotaped the PEBCC rehearsing it. Kuzma adds, “Eric loved it, made the recording and sent it to Iryna, who was moved to tears.”
The concert, reflecting Ukraine’s diversity, also includes songs sung in the Tatar language native to the Crimean Peninsula, and von Stade performing a lullaby in Yiddish, a first for the esteemed singer.
“It’s just a beautiful picture of a woman sitting, rocking her baby, and underneath the cradle are two goats,” von Stade says. “The goats have to go to work, and she continues rocking her baby until the baby goes to sleep.”
Known for her illustrious operatic career, von Stade credits a former senior cantor at Congregation Emanu-El of San Francisco for prepping her to sing the lullaby: “I am very indebted to my friend Roz Barak, who helped me with my Yiddish,” says von Stade. who also will sing in Ukrainian for the first time. Describing that music, she says, “It’s very simple, straightforward and true—it just shouts out a sort of acceptance — a combination of acceptance with very beautiful melodies and words.”
While the carols and other music in the program come from a culture currently going through a very difficult period, Kuzma hopes they will serve as an inspiration to concertgoers.
“The message is to be grateful, generous and believe in miracles,” she says. “People can come together in magical and wonderful ways, as hopefully will happen in this concert.”
Cal Performances presents “Carols of Birds, Bells, and Peace from Ukraine: A Holiday Celebration” at 2 p.m. Dec. 13 in Zellerbach Hall, near Bancroft Way and Dana Street on the University of California, Berkeley campus. Tickets are $38 to $89 at calperformances.org.